Robert Holder: Football move to 5A best for 'Cats program

Thursday

Nov 22, 2012 at 9:46 AMNov 22, 2012 at 12:29 PM

Change has come to the Oak Ridge football program. For the first time, the Wildcats won't be on the largest stage when it comes to the TSSAA playoffs. It's a tough pill to swallow for many. For others, its a good move.

Robert Holder

Change has come to the Oak Ridge football program. For the first time, the Wildcats won't be on the largest stage when it comes to the TSSAA playoffs. It's a tough pill to swallow for many. For others, its a good move.

After talking about it with many in the community and fans with great interest, I've heard both sides of the argument. But the numbers don't lie.

Since I have been here in three seasons of football, every year the roster has gotten smaller. My Fall Sports preview tells me this. If the roster continues to stay the course as it finished up at the end of this season, you can expect an even smaller number out for football in 2013.

Twenty-three seniors are set to walk across the stage on graduation. All of them played huge roles for the Wildcats through not just 2012 but 2011, 2010 and 2009 as well.

Oak Ridge will return just 27 points of the 403 it scored this year. The leading returning receiver will have 26 yards on two catches, and just 42 yards receiving of the team's 1,752 will be back. The leading returning rusher will have 133 yards. Less than 200 yards rushing of the team's 2,688 will be on the field for the 2013 opener.

Losing those kinds of numbers would be devastating even to the Crimson Tide or the Green Bay Packers.

But that isn't the reason for the move. The interest just isn't there and having just 30 or 40 players on a 6A team isn't just bad for the win column, it could be hazardous for the players.

It's hard to remember sometimes the 6-foot-5, 250-pound linebacker lining up across from the 6-foot-3 , 215-pound running back on Friday nights is just a 16- or 17-year-old boy. If 30 players are going up against a team with 80 or 90 of those size players ... you can see how that might be tough in a 10-12 week stretch.

And while Oak Ridge has historically been among the biggest schools in the state, it just simply isn't anymore. It isn't even the socio-economic or political reasons for enrollment to blame. More schools are just being built every year in the state.

Murfreesboro already has four in-city schools with more than 2,000 students and is set to build another 6A school, Stewarts Creek High School, with an initial enrollment of 1,500 in Rutherford County next year. Hardin Valley Academy is just three years old and has 1,851 students just miles away from Oak Ridge, 1,346, Karns, 1,315, and Farragut, 1,728. Schools are getting bigger across the state bottom line.

Oak Ridge, enrollment 1,346, will actually be reunited in the playoffs with some former rivals. Teams like Tennessee High, Morristown East and West, South Doyle, Cocke County, Cleveland and Ooltewah could all meet the Wildcats on their way to Cookeville in the coming years.

And the 'Cats will have the chance to move back up if numbers improve in four years when football reclassifies, if not sooner.

The Wildcats will still be the Wildcats. They will still be playing games at Blankenship Field and walking down the steps before the game. There just may not be as many of them. Playing in Class 5A doesn't make Oak Ridge any less of a team as CAK or Alcoa playing in 3A makes them less of a powerhouse in Tennessee high school football.